posted on March 6, 2003 01:39:50 PM new
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20030306/CORAMI6/TPComment/TopStories
This is a really thought provoking article.
It begs many questions. One, where is all of the oil wealth going? Why do Arabs blame Israel and the US for their conditions?
And surely there are perhaps other remedies than bombing these people?
And if you do have to drop a bomb or two surely it should fall on the right people.
Just a thought.
"Here's what we find if we isolate six relatively low income, large-population Arab states (Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, Syria, Yemen): The average per capita GDP for the 194 million citizens of these countries was $1,039 in 2001. If we could factor in Palestine, Iraq, and Somalia -- all economic catastrophes recently -- the average income would be even lower. And if we adjust for inflation and foreign-exchange-value declines, they'd drop even more."
"As Arab populations continue to grow at the rate of about 2.5 per cent a year, as the majority of Arabs remain poor with few prospects of improvement, and as virtually no Arab citizenry can freely elect its leadership and hold it accountable in a credible manner, the result, not surprisingly, is massive inner tensions that drive most Arabs to despair, some to revolt, and a handful to terror. American military attacks, domestic Arab repression, and heightened Israeli brutality will not dampen these sentiments, but rather hasten and exacerbate them."
posted on March 6, 2003 03:03:04 PM new
I agree with you. Who would we be killing? Innocent men, women and children. Hussein will be well hidden, you can bet on that. Greater and greater resentment toward the states will follow as well as more terrorist attacks around the world. Desperate people are often driven to desperate measures. Take an already distitute nation, blow away any chance it has of economic recovery, kill most of its citizenry and what's left? Nothing. Compliments of the good ol' U S of A! No, there will be no resentment harbored toward us when this is all over.
posted on March 7, 2003 10:39:00 AM new
Yes I agree, LOL. Just look at the examples of Germany and Japan after WWII. We pummeled those poor people into the ground and then just left them to their own devices to become great economic powers. Not to mention just abandoning Britain and France too, in fact all of Europe was abandoned by the US after WWII to become an economic disaster.
How ignorant can you be about the United States. The barrier to these countries becoming economically sound is their leadership.
The author doesn't mention the vast wealth of the oil producing Arab countries and how all that wealth has done nothing to improve their lot.
And when America steps up to begin changing that leadership what do we hear ? We are warmongers. Yeah right.
